How's this for irony: Having allowed federal unemployment benefits to run out in December, some lawmakers are balking at a bill to renew them retroactively because it might be hard to figure out who should receive them. Congress made this task far harder than it should have been, but the technical challenges aren't insurmountable. Lawmakers should restore the benefits now and leave them in place until the unemployment rate reaches a more reasonable level. Federal jobless benefits, which are provided only in times of high unemployment, kick in after people have exhausted their state benefits, which typically last for six months.

WASHINGTON -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's endorsement of President Obama on the same day that Washington pledged to pay the full cost of providing emergency power and public transportation to the storm-battered city is drawing charges of "political payback" from a Kansas congressman. "It smacks of cronyism that within hours of being granted a special level of federal reimbursement in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg announces his endorsement of President Barack Obama," Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a Republican, said in a statement posted on his website.

In January, President Obama announced a block-by-block approach to relieving poverty in Los Angeles. Federal money, he said, would pour into a newly created Promise Zone. The boundaries encompassed crowded immigrant communities around MacArthur Park and Koreatown, as well as upscale areas of Hollywood and Los Feliz. Left out was South L.A., where the poverty rate is higher. The exclusion stunned many South L.A. leaders. The strategy, presidential aides said, was to concentrate resources in communities where nonprofits or public agencies had already received one of the Obama administration's signature urban renewal grants.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- President Obama began a two-day bus tour here by laying out new proposals to address what he called a “crisis” of college affordability, including a new rating system that would reward universities that provide better value for students' tuition dollars. Obama said the new initiatives were part of his agenda to improve the standing of America's middle class, which he said was his “highest priority” despite the many challenges facing his administration. The president chose move-in day at the University of Buffalo to outline his new college aid proposals, thanking more than 7,000 students at a sports arena for taking time away from “setting up your futons” to hear his message.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that President Obama has reversed an earlier decision and approved federal disaster assistance for individual homeowners, renters and businesses affected by the severe storms and flooding that hit the state in March. The decision came within 24 hours after the state filed an appeal with federal authorities. "This is wonderful news — and it is exactly the right decision," Rell said. "The information we provided just a day ago to the federal government demonstrated conclusively that Connecticut's residents and employers suffered major, unreimbursed losses from these storms."

Shares of for-profit colleges surged the most in six years after the Obama administration eased rules that would cut off federal aid to schools whose students struggle the most to repay their government loans. Under the rules published Thursday, companies including University of Phoenix owner Apollo Group Inc. won't risk losing their federal funding until 2015, three years later than under a previous draft, the Education Department said. Shares of Phoenix-based Apollo, the largest for-profit college company, rose $4.71, or 11%, to $46.90.

WASHINGTON - Seized housing finance giant Freddie Mac on Tuesday reported a $3 billion profit for the second quarter of the year and said it would not request additional federal aid for the period to stay afloat. The improving housing market meant Freddie Mac set aside $1.7 billion less than it did in the first three months of the year for loan losses, which improved the government-owned company's bottom line. Freddie Mac posted a $577 million profit in the first quarter and needed $19 million from the government.

Southland cities have tallied damage of more than $30 million from the Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 windstorms but appear likely to fall short of qualifying for federal disaster assistance. Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck said last week that the costs will probably not exceed the $50.3 million needed for a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration. "It remains unlikely that we would reach the federal threshold," he said. Pasadena officials met last week with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank)

President Bush signed papers Friday to speed disaster assistance to nine Georgia counties hit hard by storms and tornadoes earlier this month. The state of emergency declaration affects the counties of Carroll, Chattooga, Cobb, Douglas, Fannin, Gilmer, Gordon, Murray and Walker, officials said. The declaration opens the way for a variety of federal assistance efforts, including funds for local governments to repair public facilities as well as grants and loans to individuals and businesses.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly four in 10 Americans want the government to do more to reduce the widening gap between rich and poor, according to poll results released Tuesday. However, there was no clear consensus among respondents in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey for addressing income inequality, a topic that is expected to be a major focus of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. The poll found that 37% of respondents said they want the government to be more involved in reducing income inequality, which has widened since the end of the Great Recession.

Ngoctram Tran stuffed the things she hoped would unlock thousands of dollars toward her daughter's college education inside a plastic bag: her driver's license, Social Security cards, bank statements and W-2s. But the most important thing she'd need wasn't in the bag - patience. Tran and her daughter, Michelle Nguyen, 17, spent an evening recently at Garden Grove High School to finish the Free Application for Federal Student Aid - the cumbersome, but essential, form that can make or break a student's college assistance.

In 1975, Nebraska Sen. Roman Hruska warned a congressional hearing that college football was in mortal danger. The threat came from Title IX, the 1972 measure that outlawed sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance. To comply with the law, Hruska feared, colleges would have to equalize athletic budgets for male and female sports, and the only way to do that would be to raid the football budget. "Are we going to let Title IX kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in those colleges and universities with a major revenue-producing sport?"

The White House on Wednesday will designate a swath of Los Angeles a "Promise Zone," a move intended to marshal millions of dollars in federal resources for pockets of poverty under a signature program of the Obama administration. Marking the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's launch of the War on Poverty, the White House will name five communities across the country to be targeted. L.A.'s Promise Zone stretches through Pico-Union, Westlake, Koreatown, East Hollywood and Hollywood, what Mayor Eric Garcetti called some of the "toughest, challenged areas" in the city.

After a spate of rare late-season tornadoes ripped through the Midwest on Sunday and killed at least eight people, local and state officials struggled Tuesday to quantify damage, information needed to secure federal aid. Illinois was hit hardest when more than a dozen tornadoes touched down across the state, leaving hundreds of people injured and many displaced. On Tuesday, National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed the damage and identified at least 16 tornadoes that had wreaked havoc in the Midwest, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Maybe too much sex has addled Suzanne Somers' brain. In a much-mocked essay published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the 67-year-old self-help author and star of the 1970s TV show “Three's Company” held forth on what she believes are the evils of Obamacare and the terrible effects it will have on retirees. She didn't really use facts, as such, or even logic, as such. Instead, using personal anecdotes about relatives and friends in Canada, a misremembered newsmagazine headline and apparently fabricated quotes by Stalin and Churchill, she maintained that Obamacare is a “socialist Ponzi scheme.” Here's a bit of what she wrote: “Affordable care will allow for preexisting conditions.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- President Obama began a two-day bus tour here by laying out new proposals to address what he called a “crisis” of college affordability, including a new rating system that would reward universities that provide better value for students' tuition dollars. Obama said the new initiatives were part of his agenda to improve the standing of America's middle class, which he said was his “highest priority” despite the many challenges facing his administration. The president chose move-in day at the University of Buffalo to outline his new college aid proposals, thanking more than 7,000 students at a sports arena for taking time away from “setting up your futons” to hear his message.

The number of homeless people in Los Angeles County jumped by 16% over the last two years, fueled by lingering economic devastation from the recession and rising rents and housing prices, according to a survey released Friday. The sharp increase from 50,000 to more than 58,000 homeless people marked a departure from counts in 2011 and 2012, which showed reductions of 3% to 7% over previous years. And it came despite hundreds of millions of dollars in government aid pouring into the county each year to get people off the streets.